Berra Sues TBS Over Sex Ad

2/02/2005 3:43 AM Eastern

By: By Multi Channel News Staff

This lawsuit ain’t over until it’s over.

Baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra filed a $10 million lawsuit against TBS, accusing the Time Warner Inc.-owned cable network of damaging his name by using it in a suggestive ad for its reruns of Home Box Office comedy series Sex and the City, AP reported.

The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan's New York State Supreme Court, said the ad, which has appeared on buses and subways, caused “severe damage to his reputation” with its reference to Kim Cattrall's sexually promiscuous Sex and the City character, Samantha, according to AP.

The ad offered a multiple-choice question on the definition of “yogasm,” with the choices being a type of yo-yo trick, sex with Yogi Berra and what Samantha has with a guy from yoga class. The latter was the correct answer.

According to the court papers, mentioning Berra “engenders a moral taint that has damaged his otherwise spotless reputation,” as the 79-year-old “is a married man and has children and grandchildren … He is a deeply religious man who has maintained and continues to maintain a moral lifestyle and has a spotless reputation for integrity, decency and moral character,” according to AP.

Berra's lawyer, Lewis Smoley, told AP he was told that TBS stopped running the ad last August, but he wants the court to prevent the network from ever running it again.

The suit seeks $5 million on each of two causes of action: commercial use of Berra’s name without permission and unjust enrichment by use of his name without permission, AP reported.